Turkey exempting Bulgaria from refugee pressure card

Nahla Abdelmonem

The border between Turkey and Bulgaria is considerably calm, even as Turkey’s border with Greece has reached the boiling point because of the flow of thousands of refugees, who want to cross to Europe and escape the war in their countries, to it.

On March 1, Bulgarian Minister of Defense, Krasimir Karakachanov, said conditions on his country’s border with Turkey remained calm.

Karakachanov said his country would not allow anybody to cross into it in an illegal manner.

Bulgaria has taken a decision to deploy more than 1,100 troops on the 300-kilometer border between it and Turkey. It also placed barbed wire on the border line.

However, the calm on the Turkish-Bulgarian border and the tension on the Turkish-Greek border raises questions.

Bulgarian border

Relations between Turkey and Bulgaria had not always been good. In 2016, Turkey kicked Bulgaria’s diplomatic representatives in it out after Sofia declared the Turkish consul a “persona non grata” for interfering in Bulgarian affairs.

Ankara punished Sofia by allowing refugees to flow on the Bulgarian border, which caused a lot of suffering to the European state.

However, this did not last long. Bulgaria succeeded in putting barbed wire on its border with Greece. This made it difficult for the refugees to infiltrate in it. Greece could not do this.

Economic interests

Economic interests between Bulgaria and Turkey have played a major role in ending political conflicts between the two states.

In 2017, the two countries signed a cooperation agreement in the field of energy, natural gas and electricity. They also agreed to remove hindrances on the way of joint investments. In December 2019, Bulgaria agreed to allow Russian gas to reach Europe through its own territory. The same pipeline will also cross Turkey.

Ottoman project dampened

Economic interests are apparently dampening Turkey’s dreams of reviving its Ottoman project, especially in countries that shares history with Ankara.

Bulgarian Turks are an outstanding component in relations between the two states. Sofia kicked the Turkish consul out when he participated in religious occasions held by these Bulgarians. It considered this an attempt to revive Ottoman influence in it.